Are Your Digital Devices Impacting Your Sleep Patterns?

Are digital devices impacting your sleep patterns? Certainly, our devices make life easier when it comes to communication or gathering information. But, learn how the effects they may have on your sleep.
Digital-Devices-Impact-Your-Sleep

We “sprang forward” this March, and those time changes can leave us dragging for a few days or weeks (maybe longer if you’re the parent of a little one).

But could our tiredness or restlessness be related to something else, something very present in our lives every day?

Could our sleep patterns be affected by our cell phones, tablets, and/or computers? 

Most people do not leave their homes without their cell phone in hand.

Certainly, our devices make life easier when it comes to communication or gathering information. They also hold the potential to cause damage to our physical and mental health.

By implementing some time limits and practicing self-control, we can help curb some of the problems these digital devices create. Problems that can worsen our quality of sleep and damage our overall quality of health.

Some of these problems (and possible solutions to them) include:

Problem 1 – Blue Light

young woman using smart phone in bed

Blue light is the wavelength of digital devices.

Blue light is damaging to our sleep patterns.

Our cell phones emit blue light, which tricks the brain into thinking we are in the sunlight.

This is a big deal when it’s bedtime. If the brain thinks it’s daytime, the hormone melatonin (which regulates our sleep-wake cycles) is delayed in production.

When this happens, it is much more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Solution — If your phone has a “night” specific mode, turn that on.

This enables your phone to use red light instead of blue light. Red light is not as bright and is less intense for your eyes. 

Problem 2 – Phone notifications

email notification on smartphone during the night in bed

Phone notifications can wake you up.

Ringtones, texts, social media alerts, etc. can keep you from falling asleep or wake you up once you are asleep. 

Solution — When able, also consider using silent or do not disturb modes, so notifications will not interrupt your sleep.

If you are concerned about silencing your phone in case of an emergency, check your phone’s settings, as many cell phones have a way you can allow for certain calls to come through even if your phone is on silent.

Your phone may also have a do not disturb type of feature that will allow you to adjust when your phone goes on and off silent mode.

Problem 3 – Elevated Stress

woman suffering from stress in her neck from being on the phone

Without a schedule or self-control to put away texting, emailing, and social media at a certain time, we can become sucked into a habit of feeling like we need to respond to everything immediately.

This increases our stress level. If we are stressing over these things before going to sleep, the body’s cortisol levels can rise, and the production of melatonin can be inhibited.

Solution — Limiting the use of digital devices is a good idea, especially as bedtime approaches.

If having a cell phone near the bed is too tempting, consider keeping it further away — on a dresser or a windowsill, so it isn’t directly next to you.

Finding a balance between using our devices out of necessity and keeping ourselves healthy can be a challenge.

It is a challenge worth considering tackling because it is important to make time for our bodies to rest — not only is this beneficial to our mental health, but adequate rest is essential for our immune systems to function at their best. 

Sweet dreams!

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